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标题: Keats' last poem:This Living Hand [打印本页]

作者: 怀抱花朵的孩子 时间: 2006-5-26 17:10
标题: Keats' last poem:This Living Hand
This Living Hand

This living hand, now warm and capable
Of earnest grasping, would, if it were cold
And in the icy silence of the tomb,
So haunt thy days and chill thy dreaming nights
That thou wouldst wish thine own heart dry of blood
So in my veins red life might stream again,
And thou be conscience-calmed--see here it is--
I hold it towards you.

From: http://www.john-keats.com/phpboa ... der=asc&start=0

Note:
I have found this poem from John Keats Forum. it was written 1819-20. A perspective of death from the living, where the living might feel the force of the dead, and perhaps feel a little guilty. It's very different from any of his other poems.in this poem he sounds very menacing!
You can read many splendid comments from here

[ 本帖最后由怀抱花朵的孩子于 2006-5-26 17:15 编辑 ]

作者: duessa 时间: 2006-5-26 22:28
Keats's poems are always heavily sensuous, full of conflicts, especially those of life and death. Maybe it is the shadow of death that has provided him with a unique feeling towards this world and all its belongings. As for this poem, it's easier to understand to hear it in a drama. Somewhat shakespearean.

作者: 怀抱花朵的孩子 时间: 2006-5-28 01:39

原帖由 duessa 于 2006-5-26 22:28 发表
Keats's poems are always heavily sensuous, full of conflicts, especially those of life and death. Maybe it is the shadow of death that has provided him with a unique feeling towards this world and ...

You are right. But I can't agree with you wholly, cause I have found a problem about my reading on Keats. For example, when I am reading his Ode to a Nightingale, I will associate it with many things about Keats which I have read in his biographies and letters, I will unconsciously associate some of his lines with some of his special incidents, his brother's death, his engagement with Fanny Brawne and so on. I gradually realised that I am reading Keats biographily! Sometimes I asked myself what is more I can find from him. I always try to approach him from another aspect, cause I believe that we can get more from such a great poet as Keats. But I have not find any other way to understand him. I have tried to find something from his critism , but I found the sources about it is so little that someone say any biogrophier have much more things to say about Negative Capability than Keats himself.
I am reading his long poem Endymion, but I found it very difficult , not difficult to undestand but to .....I don't kown how to say , maybe I want too more.

[ 本帖最后由怀抱花朵的孩子于 2006-5-28 15:46 编辑 ]

作者: 舞者 时间: 2006-5-28 14:25
It feels to me, this is about rampaging offering and yearning of life force (be it love or otherwise), so powerful that it rivals and compares to the insurmountable force of haunting death.

It is force, rather than menace.

Menace, perhaps is your association with your interpretation of death. Death is neither good or menacing. It is transformation, a change of form.

作者: 怀抱花朵的孩子 时间: 2006-5-28 15:16

原帖由舞者于 2006-5-28 14:25 发表
It feels to me, this is about rampaging offering and yearning of life force (be it love or otherwise), so powerful that it rivals and compares to the insurmountable force of haunting death.

It i ...

Have you read what I wrote above? I said we can't read Keats biographily! Mybe this poem is too special for us and also for Keats himself!

作者: 舞者 时间: 2006-5-28 15:20

原帖由 怀抱花朵的孩子 于 2006-5-28 15:16 发表

Have you read what I wrote above? I said we can't read Keats biographily! Mybe this poem is too special for us and also for Keats himself!

I have. Perhaps you could consider re-writing it, which is the fastest way of improving your English writing.

作者: 怀抱花朵的孩子 时间: 2006-5-28 15:26

原帖由舞者于 2006-5-28 15:20 发表

I have. Perhaps you could consider re-writing it, which is the fastest way of improving your English writing.

My English is so poor that can't be improved in a few days! You have to bear it!
You ask me to rewrite it , but you know it is difficult to find faults from your own writting? What should I do with that?

[ 本帖最后由怀抱花朵的孩子于 2006-5-28 15:49 编辑 ]

作者: duessa 时间: 2006-5-28 23:05
标题: A reply to Flower Child
According to the New Critic theories, one should focus on the text itself and nothing else. I think it is a very good approach. However, it does help us to get a better understanding if we can know something more, such as the backgrounds of the writer, of the time, etc. Only we should not be trapped by these things.
In this Keats's last poem there is an obvious shadow of death. Or the poet would not say "this LIVING hand". Facing the irresistible death (not necessarily one's own), on the one hand one must manage to bear it philosophically, on the other hand one is more keenly aware of all the beauty of this world and more unwilling to leave. I think maybe Edgar Allan Poe also feels this conflict another way round. Conflicts make poets.

作者: 怀抱花朵的孩子 时间: 2006-5-28 23:54

原帖由 duessa 于 2006-5-28 23:05 发表
According to the New Critic theories, one should focus on the text itself and nothing else. I think it is a very good approach. However, it does help us to get a better understanding if we can know ...

So many people don't like or can't agree with New Critics, They think New Critics is too narrow, But I want to know how they read a poem on the text itself and nothing else especially, I have read many Broad Criticisms but little narrow ones like New Critics.

作者: duessa 时间: 2006-5-29 16:07
标题: recommend a book
You can read Understading Poetry, by Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren, one of the most important books of the New Critic theories.

作者: duessa 时间: 2006-5-29 16:09
Sorry, the book is Understanding Poetry. I missed an "n" just now.

作者: 怀抱花朵的孩子 时间: 2006-5-29 17:47

原帖由 duessa 于 2006-5-29 16:09 发表
Sorry, the book is Understanding Poetry. I missed an "n" just now.

You can correct the wrong words in your original message in the ＂编辑＂item．
Thank you for your recommendation. I'll find out it and have a try. Where I can get it?
It's very nice to communicate with you?

作者: duessa 时间: 2006-5-29 18:04
It has been published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press (Beijing) in 2004. You can find it in large bookstores.

作者: 怀抱花朵的孩子 时间: 2006-5-29 18:08

原帖由 duessa 于 2006-5-29 18:04 发表
It has been published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press (Beijing) in 2004. You can find it in large bookstores.

In original text or translated?

作者: duessa 时间: 2006-5-29 18:14
original with a Chinese introduction

作者: 怀抱花朵的孩子 时间: 2006-5-29 18:21
Thank you so much! Have you read this book? If had, can you give some reviews about this book or some introductions to us?

作者: duessa 时间: 2006-5-29 18:32
I have read part of it. The book has been widely adopted in the US universities as a textbook for students of literature. I think its most outstanding feature lies in its analyses of many poems. Not only can we know how to use New Critic ways specifically, but also we will get a better understanding of many poems after reading it.

作者: 怀抱花朵的孩子 时间: 2006-5-29 18:37

原帖由 duessa 于 2006-5-29 18:32 发表
I have read part of it. The book has been widely adopted in the US universities as a textbook for students of literature. I think its most outstanding feature lies in its analyses of many poems. No ...

Have you read what I write above? I ask if you can write some reviews on this book?

作者: duessa 时间: 2006-5-29 18:46
Oh, it's beyond me at the moment. On the one hand I haven't finish reading it, on the other hand there is already a Chinese introduction written by a famous professor in the book. it doesn't seem right for me to just copy...

作者: 怀抱花朵的孩子 时间: 2006-5-29 23:17

原帖由 duessa 于 2006-5-29 18:46 发表
Oh, it's beyond me at the moment. On the one hand I haven't finish reading it, on the other hand there is already a Chinese introduction written by a famous professor in the book. it doesn't seem r ...

It doesn't matter! Thank you all the same!

作者: jakjak 时间: 2006-6-7 16:55
keats was merely too sick to write merry songs

dunno much about new critics,

i remember sth funny, that's
my english literature professor used to interpret those stuff rather sexually
he said know why keats' are more sensational than others'?
cos he, likely, was a virgin. imagined sex is better than the actual one
you know keats' mouth is big,huh? read ode to autumn, that is why
he put so much food in it

lol... that is why my class loved and hated literature

作者: 怀抱花朵的孩子 时间: 2006-6-7 18:04

原帖由 jakjak 于 2006-6-7 16:55 发表
keats was merely too sick to write merry songs

dunno much about new critics,

i remember sth funny, that's
my english literature professor used to interpret those stuff rather sexually
he s ...

I envy you can have a english literature professor to tell sth like that.But I feel amazing that you dunno much about new critics!

lol... that is why my class loved and hated literature?

You guys are too lucky to cherish so valuable chance!

[ 本帖最后由怀抱花朵的孩子于 2006-6-7 18:06 编辑 ]

作者: jakjak 时间: 2006-6-13 17:31
wow, really, as far as i am concerned, i didnt have much memory about my classes devoting into analysis.
i do remember they mention sth concerning abbab, ababab , sort of thoes stuff in poetry lessons. what is that called? it skip my mind
if taking literature classes is to equip you with the analysis skills, you wont be better off had you taken ours. so dont be upset.

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